The branch seems to be happy with the end result, as the latest press statement mentions it will continue producing local ads "when it will be relevant for Russian audiences." Yasha Haddaji, Nintendo RU’s CEO, expresses that the company is "very proud" about making its own promos and "considers it important to serve Russian customers with the visual content fitting their cultural and historical legacy."

The commercial was a debut not only for Nintendo RU, but for Russian production studio KOSMOSS. While one may wonder why the international company known for its strict brand control decided to establish a partnership with a company that has no background, it seems more of a case of helping with the creation of a studio for the specific task.

KOSMOSS co-founder, Valeriy Boluchevskiy, was a person behind the "Banana Switch" short movie which went viral last year. The "play anywhere" aspect of Nintendo Switch gets cranked up to eleven in that video, as it culminates in a guy skydiving with his console and playing Zelda on the fly. Many people across the world considered the video worthy of being an actual Switch advertisement, and Nintendo RU seem to have taken a note.

KOSMOSS has now published a making-of for the Super Mario Odyssey ad, which you can take a look at below. It provides quite a lot of insight on visualising and creating the first Russian Nintendo ad — and it’s fully subtitled to English.

Sentimentality and nostalgia sells, the ad here is pretty effective, but this kind of "heartwarming" thing stepped over the line for me with the Sainsbury's Christmas ad from 2014.there's something cheap, dishonest and slightly facetious about it that made my skin crawl.It's a thin line I suppose.